Author: lford

Apartment shopping is one of the most important mystery shops for everyone to do. After all, we all need to a place to live. Shoppers help to review the apartments for people who are about to rent.

Shoppers play an import role as it is important people know they are renting in a safe clean place.

In fact, apartment shopping can be also one of the most complex shops that an evaluator may do. It can also be rewarding for the good shopper. So keep in mind the effort you put in will be compensated.

Dressing the part will help your frame of mind and help you to keep focused to your job at hand. Most apartment communities are in what is termed “good areas”. Try to dress in business casual and try not to dress in sweats, uniforms or ripped jeans. Remember most people will dress well to make a good impression on a prospective landlord. You also don’t want to bring extra scrutiny to you.

A little effort will go a long way. If you can find some khakis and a nice polo shirt that will suffice. Women can even pair a polo shirt with a skirt. Keep comfortable and look good it will help your cover as mystery shopper. Effort is required to play the part when you are touring the apartment complex. Being alert and being comfortable help you to make observations necessary for a more accurate shop.

When looking for work, you might have run across ads about mystery shopping jobs on several websites and wondered if this employment might work with your scheduling.  But you might also think, what type of equipment would you need to work for some of these companies?

Most mystery shopping jobs require basic equipment and typically require access to the Internet to navigate to the various websites or to check for daily computer jobs.  Other basic items include a telephone, and writing materials.  Other optional equipment include a digital camera or scanner and a xerox machine which can be valuable assets since they could save you money since xerox copies or having someone scan and upload a document can become costly.

If you are doing jobs that require typing an evaluation, then ensure you have a Spell Check system on your computer so you can review your work for all spelling errors.  If your system does not have a Spell Check option, you can cut and paste your report onto numerous free Spell Check websites on the Internet.  Of course, Spell Check can never replace a proper reading of your work, so ensure that you spend appropriate time and read your report several times to ensure the right words and grammar are used and it is in the proper format for the company.

Other basic mystery shopping tools include a Paypal or bank account, since many companies are set up to electronically send payments to a Paypal or bank account.  Still, other companies only use checks so having a bank account or knowing where to cash a check can prove invaluable in getting your money paid timely.

Elisa E.

With any job, you can always anticipate customer service problems might occur and mystery shopping is no exception. Sometimes you and a company staff member might have a lack of miscommunication or they just might be uncooperative or difficult.

If you have any problems with customer service, first politely ask the company employee if this could be resolved since you love working for their company and hope to resolve this quickly. If that doesn’t work and you still feel you are right, then you should not let your emotions quickly control you and do not type a quick return email response to this employee when you are upset. Normally, when someone is upset and types a response immediately after receiving an email, it often sounds worse in writing and the employee might be even more difficult. Remember, to take some time away from the computer to think about the situation and know which battles to fight and which ones to avoid.

As a general rule, if you like the company and make good money, try to just take the high road and walk away from the dispute.  Sometimes it is difficult to walk away from customer service problems when they involve loss of money and you believe you were not wrong. If it is a small amount of money, it is usually best to walk away if the staff employee is being difficult since they can sometimes retaliate and cause you to lose jobs.

Remember, try to choose those disputes that just involve large amounts of money and you are absolutely sure you should be paid, otherwise, you might lose jobs with that company and do not forget, to always be kind and polite.

Elisa E.